I have been working on a game for a little while.It started in high school. I wanted a Samurai RPG that captured the Lone Wolf and Cub feel. I wrote down some ideas and buried them.Then 20 years came and went,Now it's back and its coming right along.

The game is called Dokkōdō, after the work of the same name by Miyamoto Musashi.It is a narrowly focused. It is the samurai game I want to play. It has two resolution systems. One uses dice and is for everything but dueling. The other is for dueling and uses custom cards.

It is early in the playtest stage. Basically I have enough notes to run the game and need to finish turning them into a playtest doc so others can run it too.

Upcoming Samurai GameSeptember 3, 2008,I’ve been reading Samurai Executioner by Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima, creators of Lone Wolf and Cub as inspiriation for this game. Much of my inspiration comes from the pens of Messrs. Koike and Kojima

As a working title, I am going to call the game Dokkōdō, after the work by Miyamoto Mushashi.

I want Dokkodo to be a fairly specific game. As All For Me Grog is a Game of Swashbuckling Cinematic Pirates, Dokkodo should be something like, Legendary Chanbara Samurai.Dokkodo key words/concepts/inspirations:Players are samurai/bushi.Players are competent fighters.Death is swift.Bushido, popular understanding.Lone Wolf and CubSamurai ExecutionerMusashiDokkodoBook of Five RingsThe book of family Traditions on the art of war

Last edited by MountZionRyan on Tue May 10, 2011 11:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Tue May 10, 2011 10:08 pm

MountZionRyan

Joined: Tue Apr 07, 2009 10:01 amPosts: 637Location: East Tennessee

Re: Dokkōdō RPG

Dokkodo Design Goals and combat notes June 4, 2009

Thanks to an Amazon gift card for my birthday I was reading some new (to me) volumes of Usagi Yojimbo last night. And this got me churning on Dokkodo.

I started by reviewing GRG’s Usagi Yojimbo RPG. I love this game–even though I’ve never played it. It reads really well and captures the feel of the game. Usagi Yojimbo’s Japan is perfect for an RPG, just enough depth to be satisfying, but with plenty of room for players and GMs to bend and stretch without “screwing-up.”

I also like the “rock-paper-scissors” combat mechanic. But parts of it don’t seem well integrated with Instant Fuzon and I am still not sure how the normal Instant Fuzion combat maneuvers work with rock-paper-scissors. Also, some of the special abilities aren’t mechanically well defined (Dog and pig for example)

So I made a character. I didn’t dig too deep, just species (dog), occupation (retainer), and extra skill points. As I was doing this I was also digging around the combat rules…which led to notes on Dokkodo.

Some Design Goals:

* Edo Period * Fights are quick * vs. minions/mooks 1 hit=1 kill; also dispatch many easily * vs. named opponents combat is very deadly (what do I mean by very deadly?) * Duels have a “stare-down” phae with mechanical impact * Duels have a “testing oponents technique” options that look for a weakness. These techniques would kill a mook * lethality of combat encourages social solutions * culturally relevant mechanic (cho-han, shoji, go, prayer slips as inspiration) * 5 attitudes of Swordsmanship from Go Rin No Sho 1. Upper 2. Middle 3. Lower 4. Right side 5. Left Side * Use of Ryu and Okuden * 21 Precepts of Dokkodo–this should be obvious

I immediately started thinking about how the 5 Attitudes could be used in combat. I am no martial artist, and hove no idea how these things really work, but as part of an RPG here’s my current thoughts.

Characters are trained in a specific Ryu. Each Ryu teaches some weapons and other techniques.For combat each Ryu has an attack and defense rating for each attitude. So If you take the Upper attitude, you might have a 4 Strike and 2 Defense.

Oppents choose to attack or test. Test is a way of finding an opening in your opponent’s technique.Opponents secretly choose what attitude they are using (playing cards would work well for this: Red for Strike, Black for Defend). Opponents compare the Strike and Defense of their attitudes (which are different for each Ryu) and determine the results.

If Attacking: Strike>Defense=Damage (difference of Strike and Defend as a multiplier?)*If Testing: Strinke>Defense=Bonus to next turn (difference of Strike and Defend)If Defense is greater, no change.

* I want single strike kills possible. Need to calibrate this so that minor strike is wounding, major strike is crippling, and a fatal strike is fatal.

I still need to figure out how ones skill in combat works. Perhaps rated 1-5 and added to the Strike/Defense values.

Before any of this, I want to have a sizing -up your opponnent, wherein you may get some indication of their abilities.

I love how fatalistic this is. There is no randomizer beyond the picking attitude in secret.

Speaking with Jason at lunch and talking about Dokkodo duels. Had some positive feedback and interesting ideas. Because dueling is deterministic (no randomizer) he suggested adding a few more decision points (speed, feint, false attitude)

Current pieces of a duel:Ryu: Determines values for 5 AttitudesRyu Rank: Added to Attitude Rank for final comparison5 Attitudes: The 5 “techniques” of each ryu: Upper, Middle, Lower, Right Side, Left Side. Has a strike and defend value.Strike: The offensive value for an attitudeDefense: The defensive value for an attitude.Attack: A specific combat maneuver. If successful, does damage.Probe: A specific combat maneuver. If successful, reveals a weakness (gives a bonus to next Attack, cumulative over multiple tests.)

I am considering making dueling like a card game: You begin with 5 Attitude Cards, 1 Attack Card, 1 Probe Card, and any other cards (okuden, special weapons, etc).

You lay your Attitude card face down (the reverse shows what attitude it is, obverse show the stats) and either the Attack or Probe card. You zen out your opponent and can change cards at any time. When one declares attack, the other gets to change cards one more time. Then revela all cards and compare.

I love the deterministic/fatalistic way this sounds (no randomizer) and the fact that a highly experienced bushi would have several attitudes that he was hittable by lesser foes.

Good question. I've thought about this quite a bit and right now in the design phase I'm working on tools to help with this.But to answer your question, I'd say if you enjoy Seven Samurai or Yojimbo or L5R, this is not going to be too intimidating. Dokkodo is not a history game, exactly. Anyone interested in the period has their own idea of what it looks like. I really don't care if your idea of "Samurai" is more like Samurai Champloo or Samurai Jack than the works of Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima. So long as you buy into the narrow focus of the game--Samurai striving for perfection in/though bushido--it shouldn't be hard to play.

Last edited by MountZionRyan on Tue Jun 28, 2011 12:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Tue May 10, 2011 10:29 pm

boulet

Joined: Mon Apr 06, 2009 1:17 pmPosts: 930Location: Hartford, CT

Re: Dokkōdō RPG

I like the ideas you've exposed though I'm not sure I understand the duel mechanics very well.

I hope that there will be a place for reputation and the legend that develops around the most skilled bushi. Would the popularity of a samurai and people talking about his signature moves provide an advantage to an opponent whose strength/weakness are unknown? What about the school/dojo/sensei influence over characters? Do you have mechanics for honor?

Wed May 11, 2011 12:08 am

MountZionRyan

Joined: Tue Apr 07, 2009 10:01 amPosts: 637Location: East Tennessee

Re: Dokkōdō RPG

boulet wrote:

I like the ideas you've exposed though I'm not sure I understand the duel mechanics very well.

Thank You. The duel mechanics are much easier to demonstrate than write up right now. Bascially it is a card game. In this card game it is very difficult for a less skilled duelist to defeat a more skilled duelist. And often the winner of the game is the one who scores the first wound.

boulet wrote:

I hope that there will be a place for reputation and the legend that develops around the most skilled bushi.

Interesting. I hadn't really thought of that but it is entirely withing the scope of the inspiration/source material. I will certainly look into this. Thanks.

boulet wrote:

Would the popularity of a samurai and people talking about his signature moves provide an advantage to an opponent whose strength/weakness are unknown?

I already had something similar in mind, although I hadn't spelled it out yet. There is an advantage to be had if you have previously observed an opponent duel someone else. I don't see why your example wouldn't be similar.

boulet wrote:

What about the school/dojo/sensei influence over characters?

One of my earliest goals was to have a samurai's Ryu make a real difference in dueling style. So this is a big yes.

boulet wrote:

Do you have mechanics for honor?

Sort of. You get improve by adhering to the tenets of Dokkodo. Failure to adhere to them can cost you.

One thing that I don't really have in place is any sort of mechanical reinforcement of the classic giri/ninjo conflict (duty vs. compassion). I'm not sure this needs mechanical reinforcement.

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